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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 643678

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/643678

HY20NE 11 2697 0933

There is a cairn, measuring 83ft from N-S by 60ft.from E to W, with a maximum height of 6ft, on the summit of a knoll midway between Navershaw and Bu Point.

RCAHMS 1946. Visited, 5th August, 1929

This grass covered cairn at HY 2697 0933 now measures 28.0 metres E to W by 26.0 metres N to S by 2.0 metres high. The cairn's shape has been greatly altered by a gun emplacement which was built into the top during the 2nd World War. There are no records of any finds associated with the cairn.(Information from Mr J W Rendall, Bu' of Cairston, Cairston, Stromness.)

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS(RD) 14 September 1964

Excavation in 1978 revealed that this was not a cairn but a broch with asssociated structures and a souterrain Pre-broch occupation consisted of flatstone rubble and ploughing on a low knoll of boulder clay.

The broch had an internal diamter of 9.1m, the wall being solid based c.5.2m wide and preserved to a height of 1.5m. The entrance was in the ESE, c.3.7m long and c1m wide. Guard cells were not noted. The interior consisted of a central hearth and outer perimeter of rooms divided by socketed upright flagged partitions. In the centre, covered by the hearth and service area, there were post-holes. Middens contemporary with the broch were identified to the E and W; to the E there was a double-faced wall parallel to the broch wall, and to the W a midden was overlain by random flagging.

When the broch was abandoned a souterrain was built into the outside of the broch wall on the E side next to the entrance passage which was restored and blocked off. Seven pillars 1.06m high were erected around the wall of the souterrain to support a stone roof. The entrance was in the S where it joined the modified broch entrance. 2 small buildings were possibly constructed in this phase to the E and N of the broch. In the final phase, collapse of the broch filled the interior and souterrain with rubble; in the latter 2 human skeletons were found.

The mound and structures have been totally removed.

J Hedges and B Smith 1979

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References